The Police Commission wants more time to consider a plan for No Parking zones at the Fairfield Hills campus, due to a number of concerns they have.

At its April 11 meeting, the commission reviewed a map produced by former Deputy Director of Economic Development Christal Preszler and First Selectman Dan Rosenthal, that showed the locations of 12 No Parking signs, six of which would be located on Keating Farms Avenue.

Police Captain Bryan Bishop reported to the commission that in wrapping up current projects on the Fairfield Hills campus such as placing new water lines, Fairfield Hills Authority (FHA) has been asking that permanent signs be put up to match the aesthetics of the rest of the campus. Currently, there are “about 100” temporary no parking signs up around the campus.

“The proposition is to put fixed no parking signs on town roads, especially Keating Farms and the area of [NewSylum Brewery],” said Bishop.

Commissioner Brian Budd said that the signs “seemed like a lot” and questioned having the signs on both sides of Keating Farms. Bishop responded that the concern is the width of the road is not enough to accommodate parking on either side of the road, and visitors often park on the road instead of parking farther away in one of the available parking areas.

“In the area of the brewery, people obstruct the roadways instead of walking the extra distance to a parking area,” said Bishop.

Budd also expressed concerns with where people would park if there were large events on campus, especially since the FHA wants no parking on the grass due to damage to those areas.

Commissioner Neil Chaudhary said that as far as large events are concerned, if the authority wants no parking on the grass, it’s not the Police Commission’s role to worry about that.

At the commission’s March meeting, Bishop said Newtown Youth Academy (NYA) Sports & Fitness Center has large events; large numbers of cars park on the grass areas near the center.

He said that at the most recent event, someone from NYA was directing cars to park on the grass.

Police cannot ticket or tow vehicles because there are no signs notifying drivers of no parking. The only current police enforcement would involve vehicles blocking a fire lane.

The commission would have to vote on designating areas for no parking if those areas are not already designated, according to Police Commission Chair Joel Faxon. The chair added that if there is going to be a change to how people are parking there, it needs to be done “authoritatively.”

Faxon also believes that commission may not be able to control parking off the area designated as NYA’s driveway.

“There are parking lots that could and should be used,” Chaudhary said this month. “If events are too big for the parking, there is a shuttle to overflow parking across the street from the campus [at Reed Intermediate School and the surrounding area]. If that’s not enough, they should reconsider the size of the events they are holding.”

Newtown Police Chief David Kullgren said, “last summer people were parking all over,” but temporary No Parking signs have been helping to alleviate that. He added that his understanding is there may be a repaving and regrading project in the future, which may be an opportunity to widen the roads and put in parallel parking.

Kullgren said he felt the six signs proposed on Keating Farms are “better than the 50 temporary signs there now.”

Kullgren recommended giving the plan a trial and then working with the authority on improving in the future. He also thought parking problems may increase as a bicycle park will be added to the campus.

Chaudhary said he “hates signs” due to sign pollution, but in this case, “they’re functional.”

Faxon raised the possibility of the commission meeting with FHA to discuss the signs. Commissioner Scott Cicciari said the commission’s next meeting is in three weeks, the commission could take the time to review the plan and the time “was not a deal breaker.”

The commission’s next meeting is scheduled for May 2. Commission members expressed an expectation they would make a decision at that meeting.

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Associate Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.